History Main / InnocentBystanderSeries

* ''Science Police'', a miniseries following the SpacePolice organization from ''ComicBook/{{Legion of Super-Heroes}}'' and showing how it feels to be an average cop while a bunch of super-powered teenagers get all the glory.

* ''Manga/{{Pluto}}'' is a retelling of a famous ''Manga/AstroBoy'' story arc from the perspective of supporting characters, innocent bystanders, minor villains, other robots... pretty much anybody that isn't [[TheHero Astro Boy]] himself. [[spoiler:Poignantly {{deconstruct|ion}}ed near the end, as almost all the viewpoint characters die or get written out, leaving Astro to save the day and get all the credit for it. Never mind that they all had lives and stories of their own, or that Astro would've never gotten the chance to save the world if not for some of them; ''he'' is the hero and they're just the supporting cast, so they all get forgotten in favor of him.]]

* ''ComicBook/DamageControl'' is a Creator/{{Marvel|Comics}} series following the construction company of the same name, that specializes in clean-up and general rebuilding after large cataclysmic superhero fights. A slight subversion of the trope, as the company has several superpowered employees to help with heavy lifting etc.

* DownplayedTrope in Marvel's ''Series/JessicaJones2015'', ''Series/LukeCage2016'' and ''Series/Daredevil2015'', which do feature powered superheroes but are set at "ground level" compared to the rest of the [[Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse MCU]] and make a point of focusing on what it's like to actually live day-to-day in a city that was nearly destroyed by [[Film/TheAvengers a huge battle between superheroes and aliens]]. Most notably, a major subplot of ''Daredevil'''s first season is Kingpin's plans to capitalise on the property development opportunities of rebuilding New York.

* The Literature/WhateleyUniverse story "Crime and Chaos" is a ''Series/LawAndOrder'' pastiche where New York cops investigate the murder of a retired (and less than loved) superhero.

* The podcasts on ''Violent Life'', all set in the {{TabletopGame/Shadowrun}} universe, seem to like playing with this concept, focusing more on the non-Shadowrunning side of life.
** ''Redmond Born'' starts as this, with the protagonist being an anonymous denizen of the [[TheCityNarrows Redmond Barrens]] just trying to get by. [[spoiler:Ultimately averted when her eyes get forcibly replaced with [[ElectronicEyes Deltaware]] and she realizes she's had a free spirit tagging along with her since childhood.]]

* ''Manga/{{Pluto}}'' is a retelling of a famous ''Manga/AstroBoy'' story arc from the perspective of supporting characters, innocent bystanders, minor villains, other robots... pretty much anybody that isn't [[TheHero Astro Boy]] himself. [[spoiler:Poignantly [[{{Deconstruction}} deconstructed]] near the end, as almost all the viewpoint characters die or get written out, leaving Astro to save the day and get all the credit for it. Never mind that they all had lives and stories of their own, or that Astro would've never gotten the chance to save the world if not for some of them; ''he'' is the hero and they're just the supporting cast, so they all get forgotten in favor of him.]]

* While ''ComicBook/AstroCity'' occasionally has stories from the perspective of superheroes, it far more often explores what life is like for the average person in a superhero universe, such as a story about a comic publisher landing in hot water with a supervillain, or one about an everyman who loses someone dear to him in one of the periodic [[CosmicRetcon Cosmic Retcons]].
* ''ComicBook/DamageControl'' is a Marvel series following the construction company of the same name, that specialises in clean-up and general rebuilding after large cataclysmic superhero fights. A slight subversion of the trope, as the company has several superpowered employees to help with heavy lifting etc.
* Since the ''Comicbook/CivilWar'' event, Marvel have been using "Front Line" style tie-ins for all their recent crossover events, to show how those events are affecting the InnocentBystanders of the Marvel Universe (or at least New York...)
* ''ComicBook/GothamCentral'' was a series following the Major Crimes Unit of Gotham City, and all the difficulties of corruption and supervillains in their way.
* ''ComicBook/{{Marvels}}'' is the early days of the Franchise/MarvelUniverse from the POV of a muggle newspaper reporter. Its sequel, ''Eye of the Camera'', is much the same way. The four-issue mini-series ''Code of Honor'' also provides us with the New York City Police Department's perspective, showing us how all the wild anomalous events of Marvel's universe affect its everyday citizens and their institutions through the eyes of the lowly police officer Jeffrey Piper.
* Before ''ComicBook/GothamCentral'', there was ''Metropolis SCU'', a Creator/DCComics miniseries about the special police squad trained to deal with supervillains in ''{{Superman}}''.

* ''Science Police'', a miniseries following the SpacePolice organisation from ''Comicbook/{{Legion of Super-Heroes}}'' and showing how it feels to be an average cop while a bunch of super-powered teenagers get all the glory.

* Literature/TheExtraordinaryAdventuresOfOrdinaryBoy. The title speaks for itself.

* DownplayedTrope in Marvel's ''Series/JessicaJones'', ''Series/LukeCage'' and ''Series/{{Daredevil}}'', which do feature powered superheroes but are set at "ground level" compared to the rest of the [[Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse MCU]] and make a point of focusing on what it's like to actually live day-to-day in a city that was nearly destroyed by [[Film/TheAvengers a huge battle between superheroes and aliens]]. Most notably, a major subplot of ''Daredevil'''s first season is Kingpin's plans to capitalise on the property development opportunities of rebuilding New York.

* ''VideoGame/CityShroudedInShadow'' has you playing as a salaryman/woman who ends up getting caught in the middle of different attacks by various {{kaiju}} from ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'', ''Film/{{Gamera}}'', ''[[Franchise/UltraSeries Ultraman]]'', and ''Anime/RebuildOfEvangelion'' along with a few HumongousMecha from ''Anime/{{Patlabor}}'' thrown in for good measure, all the while trying to escape from the Yakuza for accidentally [[HeKnowsTooMuch witnessing a confidential job they were doing.]] The game's {{tagline}} is even "This is not the story of some hero. This is your story."
* ''VideoGame/YouAreNotTheHero'': [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin As the title suggests]] you are not the hero of this world. You play as a random woman in a village. The game [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] the KleptomaniacHero as the game's plot revolves around trying to get your necklace back from the hero who took it from your dresser.

* ''Webcomic/{{Nodwick}}'' is a quasi-example of this. While the webcomic has a fully empowered team of main characters, the protagonist of the series is their lackey. Part of the fun of the comic is showing how he deals with being the Mook in a team of heroes.

* The Literature/WhateleyUniverse story "Crime and Chaos" is a 'Law & Order' pastiche where New York cops investigate the murder of a retired (and less than loved) superhero.

* Star Trek: Lower Decks follows a low rank crew on the USS Ceritos, a ship tasked with unimportant duties, like making "second contact" with alien civilizations, while other ships in-universe make new discoveries and fight aliens.

* ''Series/TheMandalorian'' takes place in the ''Franchise/StarWars'' universe but completely outside of the Skywalker Saga ethos. Instead it focuses on the titular bounty hunter trying to make ends meet in the Outer Rim five years after the Galactic Civil War ended. The main character knows nothing about Jedi or the Force, being more preoccupied with the depressed economy due the Imperial credits losing all value. The show repeatedly hints at vast machinations going on in the background, such as the rising First Order, the reclamation of Mandalore, and the return of Grand Admiral Thrawn, and the Mandalorian himself ends up brushing shoulders with the main characters of multiple previous ''Star Wars'' sagas, but none of this has any bearing on the Mandalorian’s far smaller and far more personally important mission. He’d be the HeroOfAnotherStory if it wasn’t his story being told.

* ''Series/TheMandalorian'' takes place in the ''Franchise/StarWars'' universe but completely outside of the Skywalker Saga ethos. Instead it focuses on the titular bounty hunter trying to make ends meet in the Outer Rim five years after the Galactic Civil War ended. The main character knows nothing about Jedi or the Force, being more preoccupied with the depressed economy due the Imperial credits losing all value. The show repeatedly hints at the vast machinations going on in the background, such as the rising First Order, the reclamation of Mandalore, and the return of Grand Admiral Thrawn, and the Mandalorian himself ends up brushing shoulders with the main characters of multiple previous ''Star Wars'' sagas, but none of this has any bearing on the Mandalorian’s far smaller and far more personally important mission. He’d be the HeroOfAnotherStory if it wasn’t his story being told.

* ''Series/TheMandalorian'' takes place in the ''Franchise/StarWars'' universe but completely outside of the Skywalker Saga ethos. Instead it focuses on the titular bounty hunter trying to make ends meet in the Outer Rim five years after the Galactic Civil War ended. The main character knows nothing about Jedi or the Force, being more preoccupied with the depressed economy due the Imperial credits losing all value. The show repeatedly hints at the vast machinations going on in the background, such as the rising First Order, Imperial cloning experiments on Force-sensitives, and the return of Grand Admiral Thrawn, and the Mandalorian himself ends up brushing shoulders with the main characters of multiple previous ''Star Wars'' sagas, but none of this has any bearing on the Mandalorian’s far smaller and far more personally important mission. He’d be the HeroOfAnotherStory if it wasn’t his story being told.

* ''Series/TheMandalorian'' takes place in the ''Franchise/StarWars'' universe but completely outside of the Skywalker Saga ethos. Instead it focuses on the titular bounty hunter trying to make ends meet in the Outer Rim five years after the Galactic Civil War ended. The main character knows nothing about Jedi or the Force, being more preoccupied with the depressed economy due the Imperial credits losing all value. By the end, he’s brushed shoulders with the main characters of several other ''Star Wars'' sagas, and always gone his own way again afterwards. It’s basically the story of the HeroOfAnotherStory.

* ''Series/TheMandalorian'' takes place in the ''Franchise/StarWars'' universe but completely outside of the Skywalker Saga ethos. Instead it focuses on the titular bounty hunter trying to make ends meet in the Outer Rim five years after the Galactic Civil War ended. The main character knows nothing about Jedi or the Force, being more preoccupied with the depressed economy due the Imperial credits losing all value.

* ''VideoGame/YouAreNotTheHero'': [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin As the title suggests]] you are not the hero of this world. You play as a random woman in a village. The game [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] the KleptomaniacHero as the games plot revolves around trying to get your necklace back from the hero who took it from your dresser.

In a [[CityOfAdventure world filled with superpowered heroes and villains constantly battling overhead]], a world where property damage is common and evil minions run rampant every now and then, have you ever wondered how the [[InnocentBystander normal citizens]] ''cope'' with all that crazyness? In this trope, the story focuses solely on those citizens. Often centres on a police force trying to stop normal crimes and having to put up with {{death ray}}s, or the feeling of inadequacy when the heroes catch perps before they do. FantasticRacism is also a prevalent theme.

* ''Webcomic/{{Nodwick}}' is a quasi-example of this. While the webcomic has a fully empowered team of main characters, the protagonist of the series is their lackey. Part of the fun of the comic is showing how he deals with being the Mook in a team of heroes.

%%* Many of the arcs of ''Comicbook/AstroCity''.

%%* ''Science Police'', the SpacePolice organisation from ''Comicbook/{{Legion of Super-Heroes}}''.

* Many of the arcs of ''Comicbook/AstroCity''.

* ''ComicBook/{{Marvels}}'' is the early days of the Franchise/MarvelUniverse from the POV of a muggle newspaper reporter.
** Its sequel, ''Eye of the Camera'', is much the same way.
** The four-issue mini-series ''Code of Honor'' also provides us with the New York City Police Department's perspective, showing us how all the wild anomalous events of Marvel's universe affect its everyday citizens and their institutions through the eyes of the lowly police officer Jeffrey Piper.

* ''Science Police'', the SpacePolice organisation from ''Comicbook/{{Legion of Super-Heroes}}''.

* ''Series/TheMandalorian'' takes place in the ''Franchise/StarWars'' universe but completely outside of the Skywalker Saga ethos. Instead it focuses on the titular bounty hunter trying to make ends meet in the Outer Rim during the period between the fall of the Empire and the rise of the First Order.

[[folder:Live Action Television]]

* The protagonists of ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'' have access to technology quite a bit beyond what ordinary organizations have access to, and a lot of the stuff they deal with are people getting or having access to technology beyond what they should have, but there are still no superpowers in the team. [[spoiler:That is, until Skye is revealed to be an Inhuman, and even then she still mostly FightsLikeANormal]]